TRENDING

Pulse

By GCN Staff

State CIOs press federal leaders on cross-jurisdiction hot buttons

State technology officers participated in a “fly-in” this week, coming to Washington, D.C., to press federal IT officials on the need for further collaboration with states in the area of cybersecurity, broadband and public safety information sharing.

At the top of the agenda for the members of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers was a meeting with Homeland Security Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Roberta Stempfley and National Institute for Standards and Technology Acting Chief of the Computer Security Division Matthew Scholl, who provided an overview on efforts to adopt a national cybersecurity framework.

NASCIO President Craig Orgeron, who is also Mississippi’s CIO, said the agencies have been good partners in setting up the parameters of the framework.

“Now comes the hard work,” he said, “ensuring it is used to promote enterprise approaches to cybersecurity in the states rather than as a checklist for compliance.”

The group also met with Department of Justice Associate Deputy Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance, J. Patrick McCreary, who announced a partnership between NASCIO and the DOJ on cybersecurity disruption response planning and cyber threat analytics.

State CIOs kicked off the day by meeting with Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The meeting focused on providing broadband to schools and libraries and enacting reforms to the E-rate program that helps provide resources for high speed broadband.

State CIOs also met with FirstNet board member Teri Takai and Deputy General Manager for FirstNet TJ Kennedy to discuss next steps between states and the FirstNet authority in building a nationwide public safety broadband network.

Creating an interoperable public safety communications network remains an unfulfilled recommendation of the 9/11 commission, noted NASCIO, over a decade after the commission pointed out the gap in homeland security.